Attributing ancient coins is a fun part of collecting coins. Roman
Imperial Coins are the easiest to attribute, whil Greek coins can be the
hardest.
| Roman Imperial/Imperatorial/Republic |
Fairly straight forward to attribute if you search an online
database or have the proper books |
| Byzantine (Romaion) |
A little bit harder to attribute than Roman Imperial because there
is less resource material and the coins can often be hard to read. |
| Greek/Roman Provincial |
A lot more difficult than Roman Imperial coins to attribute because
most of the inscriptions are in Greek and there is a lot less resource material
available. |
| Non-Classical (Celtic, Judean, Parthian, etc...) |
Non Clasical coins can be as easy to attribute as Roman Imperial
coins or harder to attribute than Greek coins. It all depends on when and where
the coin came from and how much resource material there is to reference on that
culture. |
| Greek |
Usually the hardest type of coin to attribute for the beginner. Not
only are there very few identifying inscriptions, the inscriptions are in the
Greek alphabet. |
Favorite resources for attributing ancient coins:
- ACA - User friendly discussion group devoted to the attribution of coins and the teaching of these skills to new collectors.
- Wildwinds - One of the best
sites for "do it yourself" coin attribution
- CoinsCatalog - Very nice
search engine with many ways to research coins
- Jencek’s - Roman Obverse
Legend Search Engine
- AncientCoins.biz Inscription
search for Greek & Roman Provincial and Imperial Coins
- FORVM ANCIENT COINS - Roman Coin Attribution Toolkit
Legend Search
- Doug Smith’s Ancient Greek and Roman
Coins - Excellent educational site
- Cohen - Description Historique
des monnaies frappées sous l’Empire Romain
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